


It Is Not Enough

by valda



Category: Welcome to Night Vale
Genre: M/M, Time Loop
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-03-28
Updated: 2015-03-28
Packaged: 2018-03-20 02:24:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 953
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3633201
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/valda/pseuds/valda
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Cecil and Carlos' relationship has larger implications. Now, if only they could get it <em>right</em>.</p>
            </blockquote>





	It Is Not Enough

It starts when Cecil is nineteen.

A stranger comes to town. “Who is he?” the newly-minted Voice of Night Vale wonders on air. “What does he want from us? Why his perfect and beautiful haircut? Why his perfect and beautiful coat?”

The young radio host is wary of the stranger, wary of his too-perfect looks and his casual demeanor. But Carlos the scientist is anything but wary.

"Just dinner," he purrs, and he’s leaning close, too close, and Cecil can smell lavender chewing gum on his breath. "Why shouldn’t we get to know each other better? We’ll be working together a lot."

"Um," Cecil says, because he has never been approached like this and doesn’t quite know what to make of it. The small of his back grinds against the mixing board as he instinctively leans away.

Carlos leans too, but forward. “Come on,” he says. “One dinner won’t hurt, will it?”

"I’m seeing someone," Cecil blurts out.

Carlos frowns, steps back. “You could have said something earlier,” he says, but he doesn’t sound particularly angry.

"Sorry." Cecil is at a loss.

"No problem," Carlos says. "Here’s my card. Call me if anything scientific comes up."

It turns out Carlos is here on sabbatical from the University of What It Is, a private school in Texas. Cecil has heard of it because their hockey team has played Desert Bluffs. Carlos is a professor in his late twenties; he is a little old to be asking out nineteen-year-olds, Cecil thinks.

Cecil is _not_ actually dating anyone. He has been thinking for quite some time of asking out his childhood friend, Earl Harlan, but he’s never actually gotten up the nerve to do it. As time passes, Cecil starts seeing Carlos more and more, at town meetings and festivals and whenever any science news occurs. It isn’t long before Cecil’s sister is teasing him about the scientist, even though Cecil has not indicated any interest at all, thank you.

Cecil doesn’t realize what the man has come to mean to him until Carlos is lying broken and bleeding on the floor of the Desert Flower Bowling Alley and Arcade Fun Complex.

"After everything that happened," he tells Carlos quietly in the parking lot of the Arby’s, "I just wanted to see you."

"Is it enough?"

"It’s too soon to tell."

It is not enough.

Night Vale falls, and Cecil dies, and the rites to right it all require grave sacrifice.

The timeline shifts forward. Past events become future events. Cecil’s tenure as Voice is postponed, and he is sent to Europe for a sabbatical of his own once his reeducation is complete.

Cecil is gone for eleven years, during which time Night Vale creeps along slowly, warily, vulnerable without its Voice but cautiously secure in the knowledge that the danger, when it comes, will come later. It is inescapable, but it can at least be timed.

The citizens are adjusted. Unnecessary memories, such as those of the University of What It Is or even of Texas, are altered or removed. One citizen’s time does not move forward with that of the rest of the town; this anomaly is not detected until much later. Another citizen’s reeducation does not take properly. Instead of masking off parts of his mind, the procedure _opens_ parts never meant to be opened.

Cecil is installed as Voice immediately upon his return, but Carlos is not reintroduced for two years. Perhaps it was Cecil’s newness that fouled up the first attempt.

This time, when they meet, the immediate affection is mutual, which looks promising. Carlos hasn’t aged, but Cecil has, and now he is roughly the same age as Carlos. He has also, thanks to his Europe trip, grown more adept at interpersonal communication, and responds eagerly to Carlos’ advances.

"Is it enough?"

It is not enough.

Night Vale falls, and Cecil dies. Another, even greater sacrifice is made.

Cecil’s time in Europe and two first years as Voice are left intact, and he is given six more years before Carlos is returned. Now the radio host is ten years older than the scientist.

This time, it is Cecil who notices Carlos, and Carlos who shies away. Under the mysterious lights over the Arby’s, it is Carlos who says, “After everything that happened, I just wanted to see you.”

Strex falls, and Cecil lives.

"It was enough this time. Finally, it was enough."

But it is not enough.

The Smiling God did not fall, and Carlos is trapped in a desert otherworld. A world the Smiling God had already taken, once.

And the anomaly surfaces, asking questions about lost years, lost time. And he surfaces in the Voice’s memories, too.

The Voice begins to lose control, to forget his mission. The Voice is compromised. He cannot be reeducated properly, and mind-controlling him turns him into a voiceless automaton, useless for his position.

Is it time to try again?

The first sacrifice had been blood, taken from every newborn in Night Vale over a period of ten years and stored for only the direst of emergencies. It is gone now.

The second sacrifice had been Josie’s husband.

What sacrifice next?

"It has to be someone vital," Carlos says, scrubbing a hand over his face. "Someone directly connected. To everything."

"Someone connected to Cecil," Josie nods, her face a grim mask.

"I’d sacrifice myself if it would work.”

"But that would defeat the purpose."

"I know." Carlos closes his eyes. "But…he’s already lost so much of his family…"

"Well," Josie says, "there is one person. Someone you didn’t know about until he popped back into this reality. Someone Cecil didn’t even remember."

"The anomaly," Carlos breathes. "You’re right, of course.

"Earl Harlan."

**Author's Note:**

> This was inspired by videntefernandez's [time loop theory](http://videntefernandez.tumblr.com/tagged/time-loop-theory).


End file.
